


Rolling Blackouts

by minnies_musings



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Blackout AU, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Violence, Swearing, protective Pete
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 04:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10429506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnies_musings/pseuds/minnies_musings
Summary: All Sonny wanted for that night was to get out of the bodega early enough to see some of the fireworks. When the power goes out and looters take to the streets, his priority turns to getting the grate down and getting somewhere safe. His plans change again when a group of looters set their sights on the bodega as their next target.





	

Sure he was happy that Usnavi was finally on a date with Vanessa, but Sonny couldn’t help but feel a little bitter. After all, if not for him the date never would have happened…you just couldn’t trust Usnavi to ask a girl out on his own. Sonny had half expected his cousin to give him a little more than a free soda for his wingmanship. He’d been hoping for the night off, but of course with everyone going to the Rosario’s and then the club, as well as the fourth of July celebrations, somebody needed to stay at the bodega. And that poor somebody was him.

While everyone was out having a good time, Sonny remained by himself in the bodega, leaning against the counter and counting down the minutes until he could close up. The radio offered a little comfort, and he allowed himself to hum along and dance a bit when the store was empty. Finally the streets darkened and the streetlights flickered on, signaling time to close. He went through the motions of closing quickly, hoping to be able to finish quickly enough so that he could get to the fireworks show without missing too much of it.

He’d just finished sweeping up when the lights flickered than died, the radio following shortly after. Sonny stood still for a moment, gripping the broom tightly, expecting the power to come back on any second. Rolling blackouts were not an uncommon occurrence in Washington Heights, _especially_ during the summer. The minutes ticked by without anything happening, and finally Sonny groaned and let the broom clatter to the ground.

“ ‘Navi, if you didn’t pay the damn electricity…” He grumbled to himself, fumbling around in the dark for the flashlight that they usually kept behind the counter. When his fingers wrapped around the cool metal he made to straighten up with a triumphant hum, though the hum quickly turned to curses as he hit his head on the edge of the counter. Righting himself and gently massaging the small bump, Sonny flicked on the flashlight and made his way to the back of the bodega in search of the fuse box.

“Okay, here we go…” He sighed once he found it, holding the end of the small flashlight in his mouth to free up his hands. He’d never actually messed with the box before, but he’d seen Usnavi do it plenty of times. It couldn’t be that difficult. His hand hovered over the switches until he found the main, giving it a couple flicks and cursing when nothing happened. He flicked a couple of the other switches to no avail, his worry growing with each passing moment.

He debated calling Usnavi, then thought better of it. This was the first time his cousin had been out on a date in months, and with Vanessa to boot. There was no way he was going to ruin this night for them. _Okay, okay I got this_ , he thought, closing the fuse box and taking a deep breath. He’d been closing anyways, they’d deal with the lack of power in the morning. No big deal.

Satisfied with his decision, Sonny carefully made his way to the front of the bodega. It was then that he noticed none of the other buildings had their lights on. The entirety of Washington Heights was in the dark. He hesitated a moment inside the glass door, hand resting on it a moment before he took a deep breath and stepped outside. All he had to do before going home was close the grate. Easy peasy.

He reached up and gripped the edge of the grate, giving it an experimental tug. It began to inch down, slowly but surely much to Sonny’s excitement. So much for it being broken, Usnavi probably wasn’t trying hard enough to move it. Just as he thought this, the grate let out an ear-piercing screech and then refused to budge. He blinked, giving it a tug and gritting his teeth, almost lifting himself off his feet in an attempt to force the grate to lower.

“Come on…come _on_!” He hissed, smacking the palm of his hand against the metal and taking a step back to glare at it. Maybe Usnavi had been right. Too late for that now. He gripped the edge of the grate again and leaned back, trying to put his entire body weight into making the _stupid thing move!_

A crash down the street grabbed his attention and he immediately let go of the grate and straightened up. The street was near pitch black at this point, and it was almost impossible to make anything out. A passing car gave off enough light to reveal a group of bodies standing outside one of the empty store fronts, bats in their hands and shattered glass around their feet. Looters…damn.

Sonny turned back to the bodega, frantically trying to lower the grate so he could get the hell out of there. The grate inched down with another ear-splitting screech before it got stuck once again and refused to move. No matter how hard he tugged or wiggled it, the grate remained stuck in place. Fuming, Sonny stepped back and kicked out at the old post box sitting on the corner. He yelped and hopped on one foot, cursing repeatedly before freezing. Standing across from him was the group that he’d seen down the street.

“Evening, de la Vega. Lovely night, isn’t it?”

“Uh…yeah, I guess.” Sonny muttered, trying and failing to make out just who these figures were. It was too dark to make anything out, and the only way he could tell someone had moved was the scuff of their shoes on the sidewalk. He immediately mirrored the motion backwards, placing himself in front of the door to the bodega. Someone in the group chuckled, the sound sending a chill down his back. He suddenly wished he’d thought to grab his bat when he’d been messing with the fuse box.

“Come on Sonny, just let us in. We don’t want to hurt you.”

Sonny couldn’t make out which of the figures had spoken, the darkness masking their identities completely. The voice seemed to come from right beside him and he flicked, his heart hammering in his ears. The fact that they knew his name was _not_ helping him to stay calm, and he was half tempted to bolt back into the bodega to grab his bat. He didn’t move though, finding that he just couldn’t. His feet were frozen to the sidewalk, despite the summer heat.

“No can do man.” He said instead, his voice quivering just enough to be noticeable. “Just…just back of. I ain’t afraid of you.”

“Hm…You should be. There’s more of us than there are of you, and we’ve got weapons. So step aside, Sonny.”

Sonny shied back as the group advanced on him, oblivious to everything else on the street. His back his the door into the bodega and he stiffened, hands clenching into fists at his sides. The group formed a tight semi-circle around him, effectively blocking off any means of escape.

“Last chance, Sonny. You can go now, or you can regret trying to be a hero. It’s up to you.” The tallest of the group said, stepping aside to create a gap before gesturing through it. Sonny looked towards the gap a moment but didn’t move towards it, still rooted in place. Someone sighed and the gap closed up again.

“Well, you can’t say we didn’t give you a chance.” Before Sonny had the chance to react, one of the figures stepped forward and rammed the knob end of their bat into his stomach. He pitched forward with a grunt and wrapped his arms around his middle as he dropped to his knees, struggling to catch his breath. Someone tried to step over him to get to the door of the bodega, but Sonny lashed out. His kick caught them behind the knees and sent them sprawling face-first into the glass door.

While the figure who had tripped into the door righted themselves, the other two hauled Sonny to his feet roughly pinning his arms to tightly to his sides. He continued to thrash about, kicking out haphazardly in an attempt to catch yet another of the figures. He jolted and stilled with a choked whimper as the bat found his stomach again, sagging forward and whimpering softly.

“There,” the figure panted, “you going to behave yourself now, de la Vega? Or do you need _another_ reminder?”

Sonny lifted his head slowly, glaring up at the figure before spitting at them, thankful for the darkness that concealed his tears. It was hard to be intimidating when people could see you were crying. The figure stepped back with a startled curse as though they’d been physically struck, angrily swiping the spit from their cheek.

“You little shit.” They snarled, hefting the bat up and getting ready to take a proper swing. Sonny tensed, clenching his eyes closed and turning away in anticipation of the strike. It never fell. Instead, the sky was suddenly lit up by an explosion of red, white, and blue. The hands holding him up vanished as another explosion rang out, much closer than the first. Sonny hit the ground and curled up, arms up over his head as more shots rang out and illuminated the street. The group surrounding him turned and ran, some stepping on him or stumbling over him in their haste to escape.

Just as suddenly as they had started, the explosions stopped, leaving the street eerily quiet and dark. The only sound Sonny could make out was the ringing in his ears, and the sound of his own heartbeat. He wasn’t aware of the rapidly approaching footsteps until something thudded to the ground beside his head. He flinched and curled up more, clenching his eyes closed and whining faintly again. A gentle hand closed over his shoulder and he finally risked a glance up, squinting through the tears and darkness to try and make out a face.

“Jesus Christ, Sonny.”

“Pete?” Sonny’s voice shook despite his attempt to keep it steady. The hand on his shoulder slid down to his back, starting to rub in soothing circles.

“Naw, it’s the Easter bunny. Course it’s me.” Pete huffed, settling down next to Sonny and frowning down at him. “The hell you doin’ out here?”

Sonny took a deep breath, slowly managing to sit up with Pete’s help. “Usnavi was at the club, so I was at the bodega, then the power went out. So I-I tried to fix it but it didn’t come back on, so I tried to pull down the grate, then it got stuck…and then…and then…” His breath caught in his throat and he trailed off, struggling to keep his composure and not break down in tears.

“Yo easy…easy Sonny. Deep breaths man.” Pete said, wrapping his arm around Sonny’s shoulders and pulling him close. They sat in silence for several moments, Sonny trembling as he tried to keep calm, tried not to have a complete breakdown in front of Pete.

“Come on, we can’t stay out here.” Pete said, shattering the silence in the street again. “They’ll be back for sure.”

“I can’t leave the store.” Sonny very nearly whined, shaking his head violently. Pete huffed and looked over his shoulder to the grate before checking the street. He cursed softly and stood up, wiping his hands on his pants before gripping the grate and bracing one leg against the wall.

“Grab the other side, if you can.” He said, glancing back down to Sonny. Sonny hesitated a moment before pushing himself to his feet, hissing in pain but forcing himself to mirror Pete’s stance on the other side of the grate.

“On three, ‘kay? One, two, _three!_ ” Together, Sonny and Pete pulled on the grate. It refused to budge after the first few tugs, but finally it started to move with a loud screech of protest. After another few moments of straining and cursing, the grate finally hit the ground. Sonny bent and quickly locked it in place, straightening up with a weak smile.

“You’re a life-saver, Petie.”

“And you’re delirious, Sonny. Come on, let’s get you someplace safe. Your cousin home?”

“No idea.”

Pete sighed heavily and shook his head, stiffening as someone started yelling down the street. He instinctively grabbed Sonny’s hand and stepped in between him and the rapidly approaching voices.

“My place then?” He asked, stooping down to pick up his bag and sling it over his shoulder.

“Your place.” Sonny agreed, letting Pete lead him through the darkened streets of the barrio. Any other night he would have felt terrified walking the darkened streets, but now he felt untouchable.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow...I have to admit, I had to look into a couple strange things for this. Mainly, how the hell a fuse box works, what the end of a baseball bat is called (not the end you hit the ball with, the end you grip...I now realize I could have used grip), and what decibel level fireworks go off at, as well as what decibel level is harmful to human ears. 
> 
> (Also this is my first ITH fic so I'm still kinda working characterization...)


End file.
